Information Management SIG online DigITea talk session

Description

The Information Management SIG invites you to join us for the next in the series of short online talks from 12:30 until 13:30 on Tuesday 10 February 2026.

Each session will have a focus on a specific topic, and we welcome everyone regardless of their level of pre-existing knowledge.

This session will feature a talk by Stuart Jeffries from Glasgow School of Art giving a talk on Unpath’d Waters, a ground-breaking 3-year research project to unite the UK’s maritime collections.

About Unpath’d Waters

The UK has a rich maritime heritage, stretching back over 23,000 years. It’s impossible to tell the story of our islands without talking about our relationship with the sea.

This maritime past is becoming increasingly important. People are more aware of our exploitation of the sea and topics such as colonialism, slavery, and immigration.

Unpath’d Waters therefore aimed to increase interaction with the UK’s maritime heritage by making it easier to research and easier for the public to discover and share stories in new ways.

Not always plain sailing

Despite its importance, it’s not always easy to study our maritime heritage. Records, maps and objects are scattered across hundreds of different archives, museums, libraries and galleries.

A large part of our work developed new ways of making information across these different collections easy to search and find.

This will help everyone – from researchers asking new questions to members of the public having direct access to records. We hope this will encourage more experts from all disciplines to use maritime collections in their own work.

To make sure this project has a lasting impact, we’ll publish all our methods, code and research so anyone can use it in their work and help the future of UK maritime heritage.

Reaching new audiences

We wanted to rock the boat when it comes to telling maritime stories – exploring innovative ways of reaching more people.

It can be difficult to interact with parts of our past – visiting a shipwreck or exploring the sunken landscapes of Doggerland under the North Sea isn’t exactly an easy day out. How to bring bits of our history that lie deep beneath the sea to life for everyone was explored.

It’s not just how we tell these stories, but who we tell them to. The UK’s relationship with the sea impacts everyone, not just people living on the coast. Everyone eats food and wears clothes that have had a long journey across the sea. Events like the evacuation of Dunkirk and the sinking of the Titanic are important parts of our national history.

We looked at ways to reach more of these audiences that aren’t usually thought about in maritime heritage.

All hands on deck

Unpath’d Waters includes the work of many different organisations. Together, we’re working to unleash the potential of maritime heritage.

We are one of five Towards a National Collection projects awarded £14.5 million by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Together these form ‘Towards a National Collection (TaNC)’, a major five-year research and development programme. The programme will take the first steps towards creating a unified virtual national collection by dissolving barriers between different collections, opening UK heritage to the world.

Additional information

This session counts as 1 hour of CPD if it meets objectives on your personal development plan.

This meeting will take place on Teams; the link for the meeting will be sent in the confirmation email.

Event pricing

This event is free for all CIfA members to attend; this includes CIfA Group supporters.

There is a fee of £5 for all non-members of CIfA.

If you are a not a CIfA or Group member you can become a Group Supporter for an annual fee of £15 to attend this and any future digital bitesize CPD and networking event run by the Group for free.

More information about becoming a Group supporter can be found on the Groups webpage or you can submit your details and payment information to join any groups immediately via this form.